ABSTRACT

A new robotic gripper was designed and constructed for Activities of Daily
Living (ADL) to be used with the new Wheelchair-Mounted Robotic Arm developed
at USF. Two aspects of the new gripper made it unique; one is the design of the
paddles, and the other is the design of the actuation mechanism that produces parallel
motion for effective gripping. The paddles of the gripper were designed to grasp a
wide variety objects with different shapes and sizes that are used in everyday life. The
driving mechanism was designed to be simple, light, effective, safe, self content, and
independent of the robotic arm attached to it.

Contents
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
GRIPPER HARDWARE DESIGN
Paddle Design
Actuation Mechanism
Control System
ANALYSIS AND APPLICATION
CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION
Gripper design considerations are crucial in producing a functional and cost
effective product for rehabilitation applications. This gripper is designed to be
mounted to any robotic arm, and in particular, wheelchair mounted robotic arms that
are used to enhance the manipulation capabilities of individuals with disabilities that
are using power wheelchairs. Most grippers of similar objectives use two fingers for
grasping, but the dexterity of these fingers limit the use of the gripper. This project
attempts to provide a new design with enough dexterity to widen the range of grasping
tasks that are used in the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) in an effort to improve
performance and usability.
According to the latest data from the US Census Bureau Census Brief of 1997
[1], one of every five Americans had difficulty performing functional activities (about
53 million), half of them were considered to have severe disabilities (over 26 million).
This work focuses on people who have limited or no upper extremity mobility due to
spinal cord injury or dysfunction, or genetic predispositions. Robotic aides used in
these applications vary from advanced limb orthosis to robotic arms [2]. Persons that
can benefit from these devices are those with severe physical disabilities, which limit
their ability to grasp and manipulate objects. These devices increase self-sufficiency,
and reduce dependence on caregivers.
The main objective of this work is to design and fabricate a gripper that is
capable of grasping various door handles and knobs, cylindrical and spherical objects,
tapered and conical objects, rectangular and odd-shaped objects, sheets of paper, light
switches and buttons, and other larger objects up to four inches in width that are
commonly used for activities of daily living. As a criterion, the gripping force
objective was set to roughly ten pounds of force. The gripper was to be mounted on
the end of a robotic arm which was connected to a wheelchair. This factor limited the
grippers size and weight, so design ideas were kept simple but effective. 3-D models
of the considered designs were created using Pro/E and then later printed out to scale

using a Rapid Prototype printer for design adjustments before building the actual
gripper.
BACKGROUND
There are many universal gripper designs available in the market today with
pneumatic, hydraulic or electric actuation. The most important design consideration of
grippers that are used for ADLs is the safety of the operator [3].
Kolluru et al [4] discussed the design of a reconfigurable gripper that consists of
four fingers in a cross-bar configuration as shown in figure 1. A suction based gripper
unit was mounted on each one of the fingers to handle limp material without causing
any distortion or deformation.

Figure 1. The reconfigurable gripper prototype

Figure 2 shows another design of a reconfigurable gripper that was conducted by
Yeung et al [5] utilizing a wrench system and multi-finger configuration to handle
parts of different geometry with different grasping points. This design was developed
for robotic arms that are used for assembly of automotive body parts.
GertWillem et al [6] have redesigned the gripper of the Assistive Robotic
Manipulator (ARM) or previously known as Manus to include a better and more
efficient driving mechanism and adjustability by incorporating the drive mechanism

into the base of the gripper independently from the robots drive train as shown in
figure 3.

Figure 2. A 6-DoF reconfigurable gripper

The previous design used a tension cord that pulls the gripper to the closing position,
and the driving motor was integrated to the arm, which means changing the gripper is
very hard or impossible. The new design includes spring-loaded mechanism to build
up the force on the parallel motion grip fingers, and the results were much versatile
mechanism and more dexterous gripper.

Figure 3. The redesigned gripper of Manus manipulator

GRIPPER HARDWARE DESIGN

In designing a gripper, functionality is very important, and it remains one of the
main factors considered in most robotics applications. If the design has good
functionality, minimal cost, high durability, and the aesthetic characteristics are met, a
good product is likely to be produced. In order to decide on a good design for a
gripper, several aspects have to be inspected, such as the tasks required by the
mechanism, size and weight limitations, environment to be used in as well as material
selection. Some of the ADL tasks that will be performed using the gripper are opening
doors, grasping a glass to drink from, flipping on a light switch, pushing and turning
buttons and knobs, holding books and similar objects, handling tiny objects such as a
CD or loose sheets of paper, or holding a small ball.
Paddle Design
Specific considerations were taken in the attempt to optimize the functionality
of the gripper. It was decided early on that the gripper would utilize parallel motion
generated from a dual four bar mechanism attached to each side of the two fingers
creating 8 links between the gripper surfaces and the driving mechanism itself. As a
start, the grippers fingers (paddles) were first put into consideration. Through the
required tasks expected out of the overall device the grippers surfaces were designed
to be varied for the adequate handling and use of household objects mentioned. For
those items, the profile was decided initially to be angled as shown in figure 4. The
angled surface was designed to constrain and secure handled objects, and the middle
opening was meant to secure spherical objects. When opening a spring-loaded door,
the two teeth at the tip of the paddles can secure the handle during the robot motion,
and make the grasping force independent of the closing force of the gripper.

Figure 4. First paddle design

A rounded surface was later implemented in the place of the angled paddle
surfaces as shown in figure 5, which would give the gripper a softer look as well as
better function while grasping objects. A spherically channeled surface was decided to
be placed in the center of the paddle surface with the intention to contour to spherical
door knobs. Small protrusions were added to the end of each paddle at the tip of the
gripper for grasping smaller objects allowing added dexterity and the operations of
press buttons and toggle switches. The tips were specifically made narrow for
precision operations and rounded off to prevent the marring of surfaces that they
would come in contact with. Optional protrusions extending toward the center of the
grip at the tip of one of the paddles was added to allow objects such as door handles
and door knobs to be pulled open with more security, rather than relying on friction
and the locking of the mechanisms grip alone. The other paddle would have a small
opening for the protrusions to go through when closing the gripper is required as seen
at the bottom of Figure 5.

paddles to allow for a better grasp on tapered objects such as cups and for selfadjustment. Four main contact surfaces were intended for this gripper: The spherical
area at the center of the paddles for spherical objects, the two round surfaces on both
sides of the paddle for handling cylindrical and tapered objects, the two flat surfaces at
the bottom and top of the paddles for handling rectangular and large objects, and the
paddles tips for handling small objects, switches, knobs and sheets of paper.

Figure 5. Modified paddle with application reference

We decided that an extra flat surface placed closer to the driver mechanism
would be beneficial in grasping larger rectangular objects such as boxes or books.
By relying on the finger tips of the gripper alone to grasp larger objects, a greater
moment would be generated on the driving mechanism and higher stresses induced
in the links to achieve the same amount of gripping force attainable from a location
closer to the driving mechanism itself. Figure 6 shows these changes to the
paddles.

Figure 6. Extended interior surface added to the gripper

As a final modification to the paddles, a spring hinge was added to the back
of the flat paddle surface, near the hinge location, to allow for a small amount of
torsional rotation. The thought behind this modification was for an added degree of
freedom.
Actuation Mechanism
The driving mechanism was the next step in creating the gripper. As noted
previously, the design was going to utilize four bar linkages to allow the paddles to
open and close in a parallel motion. The main reasons for this were increase the
contact surfaces between the gripper and the handled object, and to prevent these
objects from slipping out of the grasp of the paddles due to the angular change in the
contact surfaces caused by simpler pin joint gripper designs. By keeping the paddles
parallel, a more predictable surface contact angle could be controlled which would
allow larger objects to be grasped safely without the risk of being dropped.
The first requirement for the gripper was for it to have a minimum gripping
force of ten pounds and be capable of traveling from a full open position of four
inches to a closed position within approximately four seconds. The gripper was also
required to have an onboard motor for modularity reasons. The idea of utilizing an
acme screw and a pull nut setup would be adequate for power transmission, and its
compact size, relatively high variability in gear ratios, and its ability to lock the

position without the use a mechanical brake mechanism made it a good choice for the
purpose of this gripper. For this design a stainless steel 1/4-20 acme screw with a
plastic nut was selected and thought to be the best design for space conservation and
overall weight conservation as well. The selected motor carried relatively high torque
to size ratio, and as a result, minimized the overall weight of the gripper dramatically.
For the safety of the user, the handled object, and the mechanism, an adjustable slipclutch was attached to the acme screw to build up the gripping force based on how
delicate the object is, and to prevent the torque in the motor to rise above the designed
limit of the mechanism. The selected components are as follows:
1)

The Motor: A 24 volt DC coreless gearhead servo motor was selected since the

wheelchair can supply that voltage from its batteries. The diameter of the selected
motor was 0.67 inches having a length of 1.77 inches. This motor, made by Faulhaber,
puts out a stall torque of 11.5 mNm with a maximum current of 190 mA and a
maximum speed of 8000 rpm. This motor uses a 14-1 planetary gear ratio, and an
optical encoder with 512 counts per revolution for the use of feedback control. Figure
7 shows the motor assembly with the gearhead and the encoder.
2)

Acme Screw and Pull Nut: A Stainless Steel 20 thread-per-inch acme screw was

selected with a diameter of 0.25 inches to transmit the motion from the motor to the
linkages through a Delrin plastic pull nut. This helps in locking the mechanism when
the motor is stopped, and it gives a proper conversion of the motor speed to the
required torque for driving the system.

Figure 7. The selected coreless gearhead servo motor

3)Slip Clutch: An adjustable 0 to 50 oz-in slip clutch was selected to build up the grip
force and slip in case the motor is still running while the required torque is reached.
Figure 8 shows a drawing of the slip clutch
4)

Spur Gears and Flange Ball Bearings: Two spur gears made out of anodized

aluminum were selected with a pitch of 0.25 inch to transmit the motion from the
motor shaft to the acme screw. A gear ration of 2:1 is used with 36 teeth, 9.5 mm
diameter gear on the motor shaft and 72 teeth, 18.5 mm diameter gear on the acme
screw.

Figure 8. The selected slip clutch

Figure 9 shows the actual driving mechanism after assembly. Aluminum was the main
component used in building the housing and shield of the mechanism and the links.
When all the side panels are in place and the top cap of the housing seal the
compartment of the spur gears, safety of the operator is ensured in terms of getting any
external object caught in the driving mechanism. It also ensures proper protection of

the motor and the small components driving the gripper from external dust and debris.
Extensions on both sides of the grippers base with extra holes were added for
expandability in case other devices such as a camera and a laser range finder need to
be mounted to the grippers base plate.

Figure 9. The assembled actuation mechanism

Control System
The controller hardware is chosen to be compatible with the Wheelchair-Mounted
Robotic Arm (WMRA) system [7] that uses PIC-SERVO SC controllers that support
the DC servo actuators and run its logic on 12 V DC power supply. At 5cm x 7.5cm,
this unit has a microprocessor that drives the built -in amplifier with a PWM signal,
handles PID position and velocity control, communicates with RS-485, and can be
daisy-chained with up to 32 units. It also reads encoders, limit switches, an 8 bit
analogue input, and supports coordinated motion control. Data for the entire arm and
the gripper is interfaced to the main computer using a single serial link. The PIC-Servo
SC controllers use RS-485, and a hardware converter interfaces this with the RS-232
or a USB port on the host PC. A timer has been utilized to cut the arms power off
after a preset time to minimize power consumption while not in use. An emergency
stop button is placed to cut the power off the motors and leave the logic power on so
that the system can be diagnosed without rebooting. Figure 10 shows the controller
circuitry of the WMRA system [7], and the gripper controller board is another module
added to the 7 modules shown in the diagram.

Figure 10: Control System Circuitry

The current host PC is an IBM laptop, running Windows XP. However, the
communications protocol is simple and open, and could be adapted to virtually any
hardware/software platform with an RS-232 or USB port. Figures 11 and 12 show the
physical gripper and the final Pro/E drawing after assembly respectively.

Figure 11. The new gripper and the actuation mechanism

Several tests were conducted using the rapid prototype models and test objects to
ensure proper application before the final design was reached. When the gripper
machining was completed and the gripper was assembled, actual grasping tasks
commonly used in ADL were conducted.
Another application tested show the adjustability of the paddles to the grasped object,
as shown in figure 14. A standard cup was the test object to show adjustability of the
paddles due to the added hinges that give them an extra degree of freedom for
adjustment to the tapered object.

Figure 12. The gripper and the actuation mechanism drawing

ANALYSIS AND APPLICATION
Force analysis of the mechanism was accomplished by working from the
paddles contact surfaces through the mechanism linkages until reaching the electronic
motor. The force considered in the design was 10 pounds of gripping force at the of
the contact surfaces of the gripper. The force from the paddle surfaces was then
translated through the parallel four -bar linkages to the pull-nut using static analysis.
Teflon bushings were utilized in the hinges at this joint to reduce friction but
accounted for while calculating the forces. The pull-nut static calculations were used
to determine the required torque on the acme screw to generate the force needed at the
pull-nut. This was accomplished relatively accurately by using the offered
specifications by the manufacturer of the acme screw.

Input torque per output force measurements were utilized when calculating the torque
required within the acme screw. Ball bearings were used to support the acme screw for
maximum efficiency. After calculating the torque needed in the acme screw, forces
were determined at the teeth of the spur gears used in the mechanism. The required
torque and speed of the motor was calculated by assuming a required minimum
opening and closing time of 4 seconds with the given force at the gripper. A safety
factor of 2 was used in selecting a motor for the required torque.
Figure 13 shows a close-up view of the gripper, attached to the newly designed 9- DoF
WMRA system [7] on a power wheelchair, holding a 2.5 inch diameter ball.

Figure 13. The new gripper when holding a spherical object

Figure 14. The new gripper when holding a tapered cup

One of the main objectives intended for this gripper is the ability to handle different
door handles. Figures 15 and 16 show both kinds of handles, the lever handle and the

knop handle, commonly used in doors. These handles were used in this test to ensure
proper application.

Figure 15. The new gripper when opening a lever-handle door

Figure 16. The new gripper when opening a knob handle door
Another test for handling small objects and sheets of paper were conducted. Figure 17
shows the gripper holding a business card using the tips of the paddles without the
need to fully close the other end of the gripper.

Figure 17. The new gripper when handling small objects

Handling large objects can be challenging based on the geometrical complexity of that
object. Figure 18 shows the gripper holding the box of heavy tools while moving it
from one place to another. The two side-curved surfaces and the middle spherical
surfaces help in supporting odd objects in case complex shapes are handled.

Figure 18. The new gripper when handling large objects

CONCLUSIONS
This work presented the design and fabrication of a new custom designed gripper to
help people with disabilities perform activities of daily living. The intended work
environment of this gripper is to work with the newly developed Wheelchair-Mounted
Robotic Arm (WMRA) attached to a power wheelchair [7]. Several design
considerations were studied to ensure a proper design is selected for the intended use
of the gripper. The paddles were designed with several contact surfaces with the
handled objects to handle large objects, spherical objects, cylindrical or tapered
objects, and delicate or small objects. The driving mechanism was designed to be
efficient and independent of the arm attached to it for modularity and ease of use.
Force propagation was conducted, and part selection was done based on the analysis.
The control system was chosen to be compatible with the control of the WMRA
system. Several tests were done on a prototype prior to the production of the final
gripper to adjust the design, and these tests were conducted again with the actual
gripper mounted on the WMRA system to ensure its functionality as designed.
As an improvement to the design, lower tolerances should be placed on the adjusting
hinges of the paddles to reduce the undesirable flexion motion. A lighter and stronger
material would be beneficial if used throughout the entire design. The use of carbon
fiber composites would greatly decrease the weight of the device while stiffening the
actuation output. Inner contact surfaces of the gripper can be covered in a rubber like
substance often used for hand tool to ensure a better gripping capability.

REFERENCES
[1] US Census Bureau (1997), Disabilities affect one-fifth of all americans, Census
Brief , CENBR/97-5, December 1997,
http://www.census.gov/prod/3/97pubs/cenbr975.pdf
[2] Reswick J.B., The moon over dubrovnik - a tale of worldwide impact on persons
with disabilities, Advances in External Control of Human Extremities, 1990.
[3] Holly A. Yanco., Integrating robotic research: a survey of robotic wheelchair
development, AAAI Spring Symposium on Integrating Robotic Research, Stanford,
California, March 1998.
[4] Ramesh Kolluru, Kimon Valavanis, Stanfird Smith and Nikos Tsourveloudis,
Design and analysis of a reconfigurable robotic gripper for limp material
handling.
Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and
Automation (ICRA 2000), pp. 1988-1993, San Francisco, CA, April 2000.
[5] Benny Yeung and James Mills, Design of a six DOF reconfigurable gripper for
flexible fixtureless assembly,
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp.
226-235, May 2004.
[6] GertWillem Rmer, Harry Stuyt, Gijs Kramer, Malicum OCallaghan and Jeroen
Scheffe, Alternative grippers for the assistive robotic manipulator (ARM),
Proceedings of the 9th IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation
Robotics( ICORR 2005), pp. 473-476, Chicago, IL, June 2005.
[7] Kevin Edwards, Redwan Alqasemi, Rajiv Dubey, Design, construction and testing
of a wheelchair-mounted robotic arm, Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE International
Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2006), pp. 3165-3170, Orlando,
Florida, May 2006.